Big thanks to my friend Char for letting me talk through some mechanical difficulties last night. We covered a lot of good ground! I am especially excited about the Breakthrough stuff. Oooh, and Triggers. But before I get to all of that good stuff, I should probably explain Resolve; it is the other big stat in the game.

Filling the Void

“Sometimes I know that it’s never enough
Survival is fine but satisfaction is rough”

-Melissa Etheridge: “Ain’t it Heavy”

There are three types of points in this game; all three can fill the emptiness inside of you, but they do it in different ways. Essentially, they correspond to three stages of recovery.

Obsession Points are how invested you are in your Obsession. You start out with twelve, and lose one every time you complete a step. When you give in to your Obsession, these points refill your cup, and replenish themselves to all twelve. The points in your cup must be spent resisting recovery, and/or damaging the things which are important to you, before you can get back to progressing. These points correspond with the stage Nothing Is Enough.

Dependency Points are plentiful, relatively speaking; you have more of them than of any other type of point. These points do the work of recovery for you by helping resist your Obsession. When you are tempted, you may call on a Dependency; if the Dependency fails you, you lose that point. If the Dependency allows you to resist the Obsession, you come incrementally closer to turning that Dependency into a second Obsession. These points correspond with the stage Why Aren’t You Enough?

Resolve Points are precious and rare. When you make tangible progress in your recovery by completing a step, you exchange a point of Obsession for Resolve. If Dependency Points work on a gambling mechanism, Resolve Points work on a purchasing mechanism; you can use a point of Resolve to automatically resist the temptation to give in to your Obsession, but– since stoicism is hard!– you also lose that point. When you complete another step, all Resolve Points you have previously used are replenished. These points correspond with the stage I Am Enough.